"Sir Richard" (Edward Petherbridge) arrives at his recently inherited stately home and almost instantly decides that he and his bride-to-be (Lalla Ward) need to have a new pew in the parish church. Warned by the vicar (Preston Lockwood) that he cannot build on consecrated ground he sets about relocating another grave - and that's his first mistake. With flashbacks galore to a previous, somewhat tragedy-stricken, lord of the manor ("Sir Matthew") we begin to learn of the history of this house, it's church, it's occupants and - of course the mysticism of the solitary ash tree and it's associated ...